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Nicholas_C

1,211 karma · joined August 26, 2013

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Nicholas_C··on Ask HN: 30, burnt out, with 6-10 months of runway. What would you do?
Go to Latin America for a few months and think about what career would make me happy.
Nicholas_C··on Show HN: Nos4, new nostalgic internet toy. A complete IOS4 right on the browser
This is neat. It might be nostalgia but there was just something magical about using those early iPhones.
Nicholas_C··on The Rise and Fall of Agent Civilizations
Yup. This whole thing was a publicity stunt.
Nicholas_C··on Ask HN: Why do tools like customer.io abandon self-serve after their Series A?
There are so many reasons to do this but a big one is that investors/buyers are laser focused on retention metrics and companies with a lot of PLG customers have worse retention metrics since those customers are smaller and tend to start/churn more often. Another one is that it's unfortunately just more efficient to go upmarket after enterprise customers and let your PLG motion die on the vine.
Nicholas_C··on Harness Engineering
Is Harness Engineering the new Prompt Engineering?
Nicholas_C··on 11,000-year-old sculpture of man riding a leopard found in Turkey
The aesthetics of this sculpture look very similar to the Moai on Rapa Nui (Easter Island).
Nicholas_C··on I should have loved biology (2020)
>It was only in college, when I read Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach

I see this book referenced all the time (HN, tech CEOs, misc. articles, etc), especially from folks who got into AI early. Is it really that amazing? Or is this some kind of signaling folks like to do to prove their smarts? Or both?

Nicholas_C··on How I use LLMs to learn complex topics
> Second, as I dive deeper, I need a way to organize the information in a useful way as I begin to branch out in many different directions.

This is the issue with using ChatGPT as-is in the web app. I use ChatGPT/Claude/etc in the Notion web app now to organize my pages of knowledge and keep everything organized. That said, ChatGPT/Claude in Notion seems to produce inferior results than using them directly which is frustrating. I'm not sure why this is but perhaps LLMs in Notion have too much context and get bogged down.

Nicholas_C··on Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?
Wow it really does. Thanks for sharing.
Nicholas_C··on New US homeownership measure puts people first
I found the Dawn of Everything to be misleading - I did research on a few parts of the books that I found interesting and discovered the authors present many things as fact which weren't true or hand wave away or omit contradicting facts/viewpoints. Against the Grain was amazing though.
Nicholas_C··on New US homeownership measure puts people first
I see you have read James C Scott as well.
Nicholas_C··on First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
I was skeptical about that as well so I googled it and:

>Helium cannot support life because it is a chemically inert noble gas. It does not form the complex, stable molecular structures (like carbon chains) required for biology. Unlike oxygen, it cannot be used by living organisms for cellular respiration to generate energy, making it an asphyxiant.

However, maybe we are projecting our current understanding of biology and shouldn't rule it out. I'm not a scientist so I have no idea.

Nicholas_C··on European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS
I'm confused on why browsers can't automatically handle the cookies pop ups. It's beyond annoying and something that should just be automated since my preferences don't change.
Nicholas_C··on Ask HN: Does anyone let AI agents play games just for fun?
Do you have a link to this? Sounds very interesting.

Another idea I had was simulating an entire town with an LLM representing each person, which sounds somewhat similar.

Nicholas_C··on Ask HN: Does anyone let AI agents play games just for fun?
I had this idea for an LLM that would play Sim City 24/7 while broadcasting live. It would be fun/interesting to check in now and then. Implementing this would be somewhat challenging.
Nicholas_C··on Late Bronze Age Collapse
This idea of this book fascinates me but I haven’t had a chance to read it. Worth it?
Nicholas_C··on US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers
I wasn’t aware of that but it looks like he is upset that Spain won’t meet its defense spending commitments for NATO. Which goes back to my point about how the EU is totally reliant on the US for security. Europe’s biggest threat is itself, they won’t even do the bare minimum to ensure their security.
Nicholas_C··on US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers
China and Russia would love that. It would also be very bad for European security that is mostly guaranteed by U.S. strength and willingness to fight wars.
Nicholas_C··on It's not about physical vs. digital games, it's about ownership
We’ve been boiled in water like frogs, or however the saying goes. Even cars these days have subscription pricing for features which is insane to me but the average consumer is accustomed to this garbage. If they tried this 20 years ago it wouldn’t fly.

Someone once said that if libraries were invented today they would be illegal and that feels more true every day.

Nicholas_C··on Ask HN: What do you predict the world will look like in 5-10 years?
>I believe Western countries will be poorer than they are now, and countries in Asia and Africa will become richer as more money will flow into their manufacturing and Agricultural industries.

I believe the opposite will happen as the post-WWII liberal international order continues to fragment. Countries that have relied on complicated supply chains/globalization (e.g., China) will struggle as the international order fragments and the world can't rely on these things anymore.

Nicholas_C··on Tell HN: I never bought anything from clicking on a paid ad
I get a lot of ads from clothing brands I already buy stuff from. It will usually be a sale or a new style.
Nicholas_C··on Anthropic says Alibaba illicitly extracted Claude AI model capabilities
I’d agree with you if it doesn’t cost billions to train models.
Nicholas_C··on Tell HN: I never bought anything from clicking on a paid ad
I'll admit that instagram ads get me every now and then.
Nicholas_C··on Salesforce to Acquire Fin (formerly Intercom) for $3.6B
It's all about the execution. Most of our customer's prefer AI (per their feedback, so there is some selection bias) since they can get quick responses 24/7 rather than wait. That said there are still many cases where you need human intervention and it can be frustrating to have to get through the AI first (my experience with Stripe's AI support).
Nicholas_C··on Confidential submission of draft S-1 to the SEC
Their tone is just as fake as typical fake marketing speak - they are trying to come off as nonchalant. I bet this announcement was wordsmithed to hell.
Nicholas_C··on Ask HN: Are orbital data centers possible / a good idea?
Is it a better or worse idea than doing putting them in the ocean?

https://panthalassa.com/

Nicholas_C··on Ask HN: When and why did you start believing in God?
Any reading suggestions? That sounds very interesting. I’m reading through the Bible this year and I’m currently working through the NT.
Nicholas_C··on Claude Opus 4.8
I think they will all be minor going forward, feels like the major improvements have all been made and we'll only see incremental improvements from here on out. Maybe I'm wrong but we'll see.
Nicholas_C··on Ask HN: When and why did you start believing in God?
I've lived/traveled all over the Bible belt and I can't remember that ever happening even once. I'm sure it does happen but never seen it.
Nicholas_C··on Ask HN: What game have you replayed more times than any other?
I don’t use any mods, I’m a pretty casual player but maybe I should look into some.
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